The Sempervirens Story: A Century of Preserving California's Ancient Redwood Forest 1900-2000

by Willie Yaryan, Denzil Verardo

Book by Yaryan, Willie, Verardo, Denzil, Verardo, Jennie

83 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2000

Reviews

[Chason · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough history of the origins and work of the Sempervirens Club, now called the Sempervirens Fund, up until the turn of the millennium. Very informative book. My only critique is that at times it’s basically just a list of names of people who were involved with the Club/Fund during various periods. Some excellent historical photographs. Overall well worth a read if you’re curious about the efforts to preserve the redwoods that began in earnest with the effort to create California’s first state park and save the Big Basin. That success, which had many stops and starts mainly due to the politics and costs involved, created a sort of blueprint for later efforts to save the redwoods way up on the north coast by Save the Redwoods League and the Sierra Club. Although the Sierra Club, founded by John Muir, originally worked mainly to help protect the Giant Sequoias of the western Sierras, they got very involved in the movement to help create a Redwood National Park in the 1960s. The Sempervirens Club/Fund has worked tirelessly to preserve the redwoods and natural lands in and around the Santa Cruz mountains and they have had a lot of success. This book details that work up to 2000, but their important work continues to the present day.